The proliferation of personal computers, digital telephones, telephony and telecommunications technology has resulted in the development of complex switches in order to efficiently communicate digital data between a number of different devices. These communication systems are generally referred to as networks. Each network operates on the basis of one or more switches which route digital data from an originating device to a destination device. To this end, communication protocols have been developed in order to standardize and streamline communications between devices and promote connectivity.
As advances are made in telecommunications and connectivity technology, additional protocols are rapidly being developed in order to improve the efficiency and interconnectivity of networking systems. As these advances occur, modifications are required to the switches in order to allow the switches to appropriately deal with the new protocols and take advantage of the new efficiencies that they offer.
Unfortunately, a switch can represent a large capital investment in a network system. The frequency in which new protocols are developed makes it impractical to upgrade switches with every protocol introduced to the market. Accordingly, what is needed is a system and device for improving interface portability within the switch so that switches can be quickly and easily upgraded and new network interface protocols can be written and supported on multiple switch fabrics.